Hello Chaps & Chapettes.
As some of you may know, I work for an Indie Record Label. It’s a blast, but not what everyone thinks it is. So, I thought
it would be interesting to do a little blog about what the day to day is like
working for an Indie Record Label because as much as I make it sound like gigs
galore and nights out in reality, its really not!
Paperwork. Data entry. There’s lots of it.
Before this job I thought getting a record
made meant going to the studio, getting the tracks done and then sending them
off for mass production. If only.
So, we’ve got the music. Great. Then you
need to get it Mastered. Which is fine. So long as you remember to deliver the
relevant ISRC codes (Unique, trackable numbers for each track) with it. Oh, and
the correct track listing for the Redbook/DDP (final format for delivery to
manufacture). Forgot to write “feat. Blah blah blah”? That’ll be an extra £40
to get it amended.
Then, you enter the lovely world of
Metadata, or the spreadsheet of doom as I like to call it. You enter ALL the
track/album info into a spreadsheet. Title, artist, feature artist, release
data, catalogue number, publisher, composer, producer. Everything. 10 track
album? Not to bad. 5 formats? Not so easy. CD, LP, Digital, iTunes Exclusive,
German Exclusive? Yup, need to write a separate one for each. And make sure you
get a new barcode for each. And the right catalogue number. Did you know
Scandinavia cant take iTunes videos? So an exclusive with video means a
separate entry all together.
Oh, and the price. Easy you think? “We’ll
sell it for £xx”. But then you have to talk to separate countries about their
price, and if you don’t, it wont show up on their system. And they don’t tell
you till the last minute. Handy.
And between all that, you’ve got the Label
Copy. Label Copy is a document that holds all the information about the
release. Contributors, publishers, copyright holders. 9 guest artists? Better
get all the separate publishing information for them, ASAP!
Whilst all this is going on, you’ve got
artwork. Pricing for artwork. Working out the unit cost of each product. Did
you know you can’t release a CD in Europe if its not shrink-wrapped?
*Breathe*
That’ll
do for now I think. For me, its fascinating to see what goes into actually
getting a CD released to the public, and how it works. Above is just a teeny
part of what goes on. There’s also marketing, sales notes, picking singles and
remixes, track ordering and much more.
I might
do another one like this about a topic if someone asks, or if I feel like it.
Enjoy x